Chapter 150: The Honeymoon Period |
Wu Song fought a tiger, but he only fought one tiger.
Here, there were ten ferocious beasts no less formidable than tigers, and all of them were wounded.
A cornered beast will still fight, and the surroundings were all flat ground with no traps or obstacles. Anyone daring to charge at the front would absolutely die the most gruesome death.
The pack of Giant Hyaenodons roared on the spot, waiting for a long time without receiving a response from their leader.
Within the beast pack, one Giant Hyaenodon wrapped in a hunting net was particularly conspicuous. Unlike its companions who were howling pointlessly, it kept biting at the ropes in front of it. With the sound of ropes snapping, the large net was finally torn open. It shook its neck, and the tattered coarse hemp ropes slid off its body.
The most distinctive feature of this Giant Hyaenodon was that its tail was a section shorter than its counterparts.
Its small eyes swept over the surrounding humans, and it suddenly let out a short, sharp howl. Then, without looking back, it fled towards the northeast.
The other Giant Hyaenodons grew somewhat agitated. After a moment of hesitation, they all finally followed its lead and retreated.
Only when the last Giant Hyaenodon disappeared beyond the horizon did the tense atmosphere finally relax.
Many people simply collapsed to the ground, their weapons slipping from trembling hands.
"They're finally gone..." someone murmured to themselves.
If the Giant Hyaenodons had decided to stay and fight humans to the death, the beasts would have died, but human casualties would definitely not have been light.
None of them were warriors ready to face death with equanimity. Compared to a bloody victory, more people still hoped for a "casualty-free hunt."
"Thank you all for your assistance!"
Luo Gang came over with several students, expressing sincere gratitude to Qin Ziwen, Zou Jianghe, and the others.
That wave just now was very dangerous. The three wooden doors in the stairwell were breached. If the crucial Giant Hyaenodon King hadn't been lured away, with its assistance plus the pack on the stairs, perhaps the stairwell couldn't have been held and would have been overrun.
Cao Biansheng, with a deathly pale face, followed behind Luo Gang. He had suffered a serious injury; his arm had been bitten off by a Giant Hyaenodon.
Fortunately, they had acquired a wound-healing card through yesterday's trade, allowing his arm to be successfully reattached.
But he was now in a state of weakness that would last for twenty-four hours.
"Thank you," Cao Biansheng said in a low voice of thanks before silently turning and leaving.
Luo Gang explained on his behalf: "His roommate sacrificed himself to save him. He was a good kid too."
Zou Jianghe sighed, "I can understand."
After a moment of silence, Luo Gang changed the subject: "How is your hunting task progress?"
Qin Ziwen said, "Currently, the Giant Hyaenodon progress is: 1 killed, 9 more needed."
Zou Jianghe said, "I have a team member who killed one. If we need to kill more Giant Hyaenodons later, I plan to bring him along and try to let him get the final blow."
Speaking of this, Zou Jianghe shook his head: "Why do I feel this challenge task is even harder than imagined? We've been busy all night, suffered such heavy casualties, and we're still this far from completing even a Level 1 task."
Luo Gang said, "My progress is 2. We were relatively lucky; Cao Biansheng got the final blow on both Giant Hyaenodons."
Zou Jianghe shook his head: "Then you're still short 8, and Brother Qin and I are both short 9. It seems everyone's task is independent."
"The overall task progress should be shared," Qin Ziwen said. "It states that the residential complex's completed Hunting Ladder task count must be no less than ten. If we can all complete the Giant Hyaenodon hunting task, that should count as three times."
Zou Jianghe scratched his head, "If the Level 1 task target is this difficult, wouldn't Level 2 be reaching for the heavens?"
"I don't think brute force is necessarily the only way; we could use other methods," Qin Ziwen suggested. "For example, applying poison to weapons."
"It's not that simple," Luo Gang chimed in from the side. "We researched this plan before. In practice, we found there are multiple limitations. The main one is the time sensitivity of toxins. Poison applied to a weapon loses potency continuously. For example, snake venom exposed to air will completely deactivate within a few hours at most, and the deactivation speed accelerates in high-temperature environments. Scorpion venom lasts a bit longer, maybe a day or two."
"There isn't a kind that, once applied, works forever?" Zou Jianghe asked, surprised. He didn't know about this; he thought poisoning a weapon was like a permanent enchantment.
"There is, but it's rare and hard to come by. Toxins from poison dart trees and poison dart frogs can last for years because their toxins are small-molecule compounds. You can think of them as stable substances like salt or sugar. But we haven't encountered any yet."
"So troublesome," Zou Jianghe pondered, considering whether to breed some poisonous creatures, but he also had reservations, worried about being injured by them.
Wang Yun, standing behind Qin Ziwen, pushed up his glasses: "The most common poisonous creatures in the Gobi Desert are snakes and scorpions. If you want to hunt, it's best to use cobra and scorpion venom.
Cobra and scorpion venom are neurotoxins. After killing the prey, the meat can still be eaten. Rattlesnake venom is a hemotoxin; the prey's corpse gets contaminated after death, posing a risk of poisoning."
Hearing this, Luo Gang turned his head to look at Wang Yun standing behind Qin Ziwen, feeling a sense of kinship, like meeting a fellow enthusiast.
At that moment, a girl with a low ponytail hurried over. "Teacher Luo, the count is in. Three classmates sacrificed in this attack, and eleven classmates sustained injuries of varying severity."
Luo Gang closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Were the last letters all collected?"
"All collected and placed in the safe."
"Prioritize treating the wounded." Luo Gang turned to Qin Ziwen and the other man, pleading earnestly, "I have a few cards I can't use for now. If you have any spare medicine, I hope we can trade."
Zou Jianghe said with difficulty, "We genuinely don't have much Western medicine; using a bit means having less. But personally, I can provide some alcohol and cotton swabs. I hope you understand."
Qin Ziwen said, "I have a surgeon here who can first take a look at the students."
Luo Gang expressed his thanks to the two men again.
Seeing Zhao Pu approach, Zou Jianghe coughed violently.
Wasn't that their Alliance's building head?!
Forget it, forget it.
Didn't see him.
This task's difficulty isn't low; it requires sincere cooperation. We're all partners.
After arriving, Zhao Pu stood beside Qin Ziwen. "Captain."
After Qin Ziwen explained the situation, Zhao Pu nodded calmly. "Then I'll go take a look."
Xiao Zhou quickly led Zhao Pu towards the teaching building.
Subsequently, Luo Gang proposed the idea of having some students stay in the complex's vacant rooms tonight. "The first-floor door of the teaching building here is damaged. If more beasts come at night, it will be very dangerous. If we hadn't already built eight Homes inside the building, we would have been prepared to abandon even the teaching building."
"You only have eight Homes?" Zou Jianghe was somewhat surprised.
Luo Gang nodded. "Yes. Actually, we initially only planned to build one Home. But the task required activating Homes in 20% of the rooms, plus some card buildings have a large footprint, so we ended up with eight."
Zou Jianghe fell silent. He finally understood now why Luo Gang and his group's Home Master rankings could climb so high.
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